I'm always in a bit of a panic before a "show". And, believe me, VBS is a show like none other.
As is usually the case, there just wasn't enough time to get all the things done I wanted to get done this year. I had Big Plans. Especially with a theme like Son Treasure Island. Especially with Pirates of the Caribbean 2 fresh in everyone's mind.
Of course we'll talk about Treasure. As in, the Greatest Treasure. And we'll probably talk about laying up treasures in heaven, and focusing on the non-wordly stuff. But of course we'll also have fun dressing up like pirates and waving fake swords around and being silly.
And of course we'll have chocolate gold coins. How obvious can you get?
But there are some other activities we'll be pursuing. We're doing some craft projects - painting or staining wooden treasure boxes ($3 at Michaels), making wind chimes, doing some candle-making, that sort of thing.
And I've got this game in mind. I built a game board and laid out an island on it, with a checkerboard; and I've got some little plastic Pirate characters to put on it; and I've got some ideas on some simple games we can play with it. Something to teach the kids about cooperation and sharing and being nice to each other. You know, all those things we were supposed to learn about in kindergarten, but were too busy making pies out of PlayDoh to pay attention to.
Guess we'll see what happens.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Home is the Hunter, home from the Hill
and the James, home from the Camp.
He actually showed up a bit earlier than we'd expected. I was looking for him around noon, but he was here quite a bit earlier. Perhaps they didn't have to do as much camp-cleaning as they usually do. Perhaps the boys were more careful about leaving trash lying about.
Ha.
The first thing we did was to send the boy into the shower. Like any boy, he was proud of the fact that he hadn't bathed in days. We could tell as soon as he entered the house. EEeeewww. Off to the showers with you! Then we'll talk.
He had a wonderful time. He is definitely ready for the week-long Boy Scout camp version.
As for the rest of us, we noticed his absence in some strange ways. The house was quieter, for one thing. As was the shower at the pool. Normally, James is caterwauling in there because there are such great echoes, and there is nothing he loves more than making cool sound effects (mostly the impolite kind, like burps, belches, and ... other kinds). Normally Adam and I fight to be heard amid the din. Today - nothing. There was no noise, no talking, just cleaning up after pooltime and then home for dinner. It was ... odd.
But that was OK, because Cheryl and I are cranking on the VBS preparations. And since our target audience is Middle Schoolers, who are caught between the conflicting worlds of Silly and Cool, it's going to be a challenge.
Wish us luck!
He actually showed up a bit earlier than we'd expected. I was looking for him around noon, but he was here quite a bit earlier. Perhaps they didn't have to do as much camp-cleaning as they usually do. Perhaps the boys were more careful about leaving trash lying about.
Ha.
The first thing we did was to send the boy into the shower. Like any boy, he was proud of the fact that he hadn't bathed in days. We could tell as soon as he entered the house. EEeeewww. Off to the showers with you! Then we'll talk.
He had a wonderful time. He is definitely ready for the week-long Boy Scout camp version.
As for the rest of us, we noticed his absence in some strange ways. The house was quieter, for one thing. As was the shower at the pool. Normally, James is caterwauling in there because there are such great echoes, and there is nothing he loves more than making cool sound effects (mostly the impolite kind, like burps, belches, and ... other kinds). Normally Adam and I fight to be heard amid the din. Today - nothing. There was no noise, no talking, just cleaning up after pooltime and then home for dinner. It was ... odd.
But that was OK, because Cheryl and I are cranking on the VBS preparations. And since our target audience is Middle Schoolers, who are caught between the conflicting worlds of Silly and Cool, it's going to be a challenge.
Wish us luck!
Monday, July 24, 2006
Regrets
1. Should never have gone to college right out of high school. Wasn't prepared for real studying, since high school was too easy. Spent the first two years in college trying to develop good study habits, and the last two trying to make up for all the time I'd missed.
2. Should've done what I'd always dreamed of doing in the first place - running my own PC repair shop. All this aerospace engineering stuff is fine & dandy, but it's too hard to get to the point where you get to be the one making the decisions, and by then they won't let you play with the hardware anymore. It's more fun to be in the shop with the toys, even if the pay is lousy.
3. Should've tried harder to get a job with Microsoft back in '86 (yes, I did send in a resume, but got nothing more than a bit-bucket "We'll keep your application on-file" response). Right when they went public. Should've worked for Bill for five or ten years, then retired on the stock. Ha!
4. Should not have taken the job at Boeing, knowing they were going to ship me out to New York (although at the time it was supposed to be a 30-day short-term assignment). They told me from the beginning that off-site means you get forgotten, and it was true. Scrambling to find a job at the end of the assignment was a nightmare. And there wasn't any career-planning involved, it was just sheer "gotta find a job" panic.
5. Should not have become involved in teen ministry in New York. Wonderful kids, wonderful friends, fantastic experiences - but that just made it harder to leave. It was the first time I realized that my career was non-existent, and instead of embracing that reality, I fled from it in a vain attempt to find a career.
5a. Should not have purchased the minivan on my lunch break. For that matter, should not have purchased a car at all. The Chevette was still in perfectly good working order (mostly). Even though it was back in Washington. Should've figured out a way to get it back to New York. That would've prevented me from getting so involved in teen ministry, since I couldn't haul kids around in it. Or at least not as many.
6. Should not have driven down to Grandma's every weekend from Seattle. And gotten "involved" in the church down there. Hard to live in one place and worship in another, or be an effective helper to the relatives with all that travel going on. Should've made up my mind to either stay up in Seattle and get involved there, or move down to Longview.
7. Should not have gone out hiking every weekend, to the backcountry of Mt. St. Helens, walking the logging trails and chasing elk herds. Now it haunts my memory, and I know it'll never be the same. Especially since they logged out my favorite spot back in '91.
8. Should not have moved into a house with four other guys, even if they were guys from church. And taken sole responsibility for the rent (as I was the only one with a solid job). Wasn't paying enough attention to the rental agreement. How was I supposed to remember to mow the lawn??
9. Should not have assumed Jeff left the pancake griddle turned ON accidentally, and shut it off while he was in the shower. Jeff always turned on the pancake griddle first thing in the morning. Roommates don't like it when you touch their stuff, especially when you mess with one of their morning rituals. Almost as bad as making decaf coffee instead of the real stuff.
10. Should not have left Greg on his own in the apartment with Aaron the Maniac. Sorry, Greg, that was just rude of me, and I have no excuse except being a complete mental and emotional basket case at the time. It was like leaving you in a pit of vipers, and I'll never forgive myself.
11. Should not have attempted driving from Seattle to Whistler the afternoon/evening of our wedding day. That was completely nuts, which only proves my lack of planning ability. And my wife's forgiving spirit.
12. Should not have attempted to give constructive criticism at two in the morning when the baby wouldn't nurse and tempers were short and everyone was exhausted. In some states, that's adequate grounds for justifiable homicide.
13. Should not have taken three months to get another job after the layoff in '03. Should've gone to Volt that very afternoon and put in my plug for a job at Microsoft (again). Could've used the money. Instead, I found out how addictive it can be to stay at home with the kids. And I'm having withdrawal pains.
14. Should not have started blogging. Don't have time for it, no one reads it anyway. Total waste of time. Plus there aren't enough pictures.
2. Should've done what I'd always dreamed of doing in the first place - running my own PC repair shop. All this aerospace engineering stuff is fine & dandy, but it's too hard to get to the point where you get to be the one making the decisions, and by then they won't let you play with the hardware anymore. It's more fun to be in the shop with the toys, even if the pay is lousy.
3. Should've tried harder to get a job with Microsoft back in '86 (yes, I did send in a resume, but got nothing more than a bit-bucket "We'll keep your application on-file" response). Right when they went public. Should've worked for Bill for five or ten years, then retired on the stock. Ha!
4. Should not have taken the job at Boeing, knowing they were going to ship me out to New York (although at the time it was supposed to be a 30-day short-term assignment). They told me from the beginning that off-site means you get forgotten, and it was true. Scrambling to find a job at the end of the assignment was a nightmare. And there wasn't any career-planning involved, it was just sheer "gotta find a job" panic.
5. Should not have become involved in teen ministry in New York. Wonderful kids, wonderful friends, fantastic experiences - but that just made it harder to leave. It was the first time I realized that my career was non-existent, and instead of embracing that reality, I fled from it in a vain attempt to find a career.
5a. Should not have purchased the minivan on my lunch break. For that matter, should not have purchased a car at all. The Chevette was still in perfectly good working order (mostly). Even though it was back in Washington. Should've figured out a way to get it back to New York. That would've prevented me from getting so involved in teen ministry, since I couldn't haul kids around in it. Or at least not as many.
6. Should not have driven down to Grandma's every weekend from Seattle. And gotten "involved" in the church down there. Hard to live in one place and worship in another, or be an effective helper to the relatives with all that travel going on. Should've made up my mind to either stay up in Seattle and get involved there, or move down to Longview.
7. Should not have gone out hiking every weekend, to the backcountry of Mt. St. Helens, walking the logging trails and chasing elk herds. Now it haunts my memory, and I know it'll never be the same. Especially since they logged out my favorite spot back in '91.
8. Should not have moved into a house with four other guys, even if they were guys from church. And taken sole responsibility for the rent (as I was the only one with a solid job). Wasn't paying enough attention to the rental agreement. How was I supposed to remember to mow the lawn??
9. Should not have assumed Jeff left the pancake griddle turned ON accidentally, and shut it off while he was in the shower. Jeff always turned on the pancake griddle first thing in the morning. Roommates don't like it when you touch their stuff, especially when you mess with one of their morning rituals. Almost as bad as making decaf coffee instead of the real stuff.
10. Should not have left Greg on his own in the apartment with Aaron the Maniac. Sorry, Greg, that was just rude of me, and I have no excuse except being a complete mental and emotional basket case at the time. It was like leaving you in a pit of vipers, and I'll never forgive myself.
11. Should not have attempted driving from Seattle to Whistler the afternoon/evening of our wedding day. That was completely nuts, which only proves my lack of planning ability. And my wife's forgiving spirit.
12. Should not have attempted to give constructive criticism at two in the morning when the baby wouldn't nurse and tempers were short and everyone was exhausted. In some states, that's adequate grounds for justifiable homicide.
13. Should not have taken three months to get another job after the layoff in '03. Should've gone to Volt that very afternoon and put in my plug for a job at Microsoft (again). Could've used the money. Instead, I found out how addictive it can be to stay at home with the kids. And I'm having withdrawal pains.
14. Should not have started blogging. Don't have time for it, no one reads it anyway. Total waste of time. Plus there aren't enough pictures.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Model Airplane Engines
Cheryl found a box of old model-airplane engines in the basement, in some of my stuff from high school. Four 0.049 Cox engines, circa 1976, plus my .25 Fox engine from my SNJ model.Insatiable curiosity drove me to see if they would still run.
I never flew any of my powered models, other than the cheesy electric model (which didn't survive the number of crashes, and was unable to handle a slight breeze). Dad and I took the P-40 Warhawk (from Grandma Meyer) out a couple times, but we never could get the engine to start reliably, or the wind got too strong, or something. Eventually I trashed the plastic body but kept the innards for later projects.
And then they got boxed up when I went away to college in 1981, and stayed in the box until 2006.
They still looked good, so I stuck one on the end of a short 2x4 block and proceeded to try and start some of them up (after running down to the local hobby shop for some glow-plug fuel).
Forty-five minutes later, after innumerable spins of the blade and primings of the cylinder, one of the engines had run on its own a grand total of 5 seconds.
Odd. That's about the same success rate I remember from 1976.
Oh, well. Can't give up now. I still have fuel!
Treasure Chests for VBS
We're doing Son Treasure Island for VBS this year, and I thought a perfect craft idea was to build our very own Treasure Chests.So on Saturday I worked long and hard on a prototype for the Treasure Chest (so I could figure out how much material it would require), only to discover later that there were better ones at Michaels for only $2.99. Made in China, of course.
This prototype was made from cardboard. The real one would require a 24''x8" or a 14" x 10" sheet of balsa wood, neither of which were to be found at the Craft store.
I was only going to Michaels to see what kind of decoration items could be found. And discovered that they had a set of very nice, perfectly sized Treasure Chests (actually jewelry boxes), unfinished, for only $2.99. It wasn't even worth the hour it took me to figure out how to make one out of cardboard!
So I scrapped the prototype and bought the ones from Michaels instead. Oh, well. They're nice boxes, and at least the kids will have fun decorating them. And won't complain that the boxes are too hard to build.
And I'll think twice the next time I want to build something crafty like that, especially when needing a large number of them. They probably make it in China for 1/10th of what it would cost me to even think about it.
Sigh.
Friday, July 21, 2006
Mighty Mighty Bosstones
OK, I admit it. I'm a YouTube addict. Ever since I discovered that they have Animaniacs AND The Monkees clips, I can't stop watching!!!
And tonight, after checking like a monkey to see what the Top Rated videos were, I discovered the Mighty Mighty Bosstones! And they are AWESOME! Or at least they have all the stuff I like. Rock'n'Roll, Jazzy sax & trombones, rap, rampant silliness, and something else, something indescribable. It reminds me of when my college roommate's brother turned me on to REM back in '83 or '84. I was hooked!
Oddly enough, they debuted in '85, and went on (probably) permanent hiatus in '03. Looks like I found something great ... twenty years too late!
(At least with the Beatles, I discovered them in '75, only 10 or 12 years too late!)
And tonight, after checking like a monkey to see what the Top Rated videos were, I discovered the Mighty Mighty Bosstones! And they are AWESOME! Or at least they have all the stuff I like. Rock'n'Roll, Jazzy sax & trombones, rap, rampant silliness, and something else, something indescribable. It reminds me of when my college roommate's brother turned me on to REM back in '83 or '84. I was hooked!
Oddly enough, they debuted in '85, and went on (probably) permanent hiatus in '03. Looks like I found something great ... twenty years too late!
(At least with the Beatles, I discovered them in '75, only 10 or 12 years too late!)
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Sorry, I'm too busy to work today...
It all started back in '03 when I got laid off, and spent three months hanging out at the house, enjoying the lazy life.
It was awesome.
The stress disappeared. The chest pains ceased. The headaches abated. I was finally getting enough sleep. Eating breakfast with the kids. Taking them to school. Getting involved, too. Picking up the kids after school. Helping out with chess club.
Inevitably, the bills piled up, the money got short, and it was time to get back onto the treadmill of work.
Now I find it more and more difficult to care about work. I'd rather be at home with the family. It would be better if I'd kept to the old schedule, getting up at 4:30 in the morning and heading off to work, getting home at four or five after a ten-hour day. But, no, I'm spoiled now. This summer, I get up around 7 with the kids, make breakfast, then do home-school until nine-thirty or ten, go off to work until four of five, take the kids to the pool for an hour before dinner, spend the evening with the family, put the kids to bed, then catch up on work for a couple hours to get in my eight.
But I don't really have a passion or commitment to the work thing right now. It's not fun anymore, not as much fun as being at home, anyway.
If only they'd pay me to stay at home...
It was awesome.
The stress disappeared. The chest pains ceased. The headaches abated. I was finally getting enough sleep. Eating breakfast with the kids. Taking them to school. Getting involved, too. Picking up the kids after school. Helping out with chess club.
Inevitably, the bills piled up, the money got short, and it was time to get back onto the treadmill of work.
Now I find it more and more difficult to care about work. I'd rather be at home with the family. It would be better if I'd kept to the old schedule, getting up at 4:30 in the morning and heading off to work, getting home at four or five after a ten-hour day. But, no, I'm spoiled now. This summer, I get up around 7 with the kids, make breakfast, then do home-school until nine-thirty or ten, go off to work until four of five, take the kids to the pool for an hour before dinner, spend the evening with the family, put the kids to bed, then catch up on work for a couple hours to get in my eight.
But I don't really have a passion or commitment to the work thing right now. It's not fun anymore, not as much fun as being at home, anyway.
If only they'd pay me to stay at home...
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Twenty Years On
The Toyota is showing its age a bit more these days.
The oil consumption, once a mere annoyance, has grown to the point of concern. Old engines burn oil as the seals and rings lose their ability to block the flow; they get worn out and lose resiliency. Where once it could get by with another quart of oil every five or six fill-ups, now it's down to two or three. It won't be long before it'll be time to send the engine into the shop for a complete refit.
But, after all, the poor thing has been running for nearly 300,000 miles.
Today it decided to show its age a bit more, in a slightly different, more cosmetic way: the vinyl interior roof started peeling off.
I suspect it has something to do with the age of the glue and the heat of Michigan summers. The sun shines down on the top of the metal roof, and the heat is trapped between the metal and the vinyl interior roof, and it just bakes that glue until the polymers can't take it anymore and they give up the ghost. Then the wind sneaks in on an unguarded corner (since, without air-conditioning, we have to roll down all four windows to get any kind of relief from the interminable heat around here) and the vinyl bubbles up (or down), and within moments, the ceiling is falling down around us.
The girls had a good time this afternoon riding home with Daddy, their arms poking up into the vinyl, trying to hold it up until we got home. Then after dinner tonight I pulled out the handy-dandy screwdrivers and figured out how the ceiling is held on, and took it off.
Now the Toyota has no interior padding on the ceiling, just the bare metal, and it is sure to get hot tomorrow.
Meanwhile I've got to figure out how to re-glue the vinyl back onto the wire-and-foam rectangular frame it fits over, and then put it up again.
Oh, and figure out how to pay for an engine overhaul...
The oil consumption, once a mere annoyance, has grown to the point of concern. Old engines burn oil as the seals and rings lose their ability to block the flow; they get worn out and lose resiliency. Where once it could get by with another quart of oil every five or six fill-ups, now it's down to two or three. It won't be long before it'll be time to send the engine into the shop for a complete refit.
But, after all, the poor thing has been running for nearly 300,000 miles.
Today it decided to show its age a bit more, in a slightly different, more cosmetic way: the vinyl interior roof started peeling off.
I suspect it has something to do with the age of the glue and the heat of Michigan summers. The sun shines down on the top of the metal roof, and the heat is trapped between the metal and the vinyl interior roof, and it just bakes that glue until the polymers can't take it anymore and they give up the ghost. Then the wind sneaks in on an unguarded corner (since, without air-conditioning, we have to roll down all four windows to get any kind of relief from the interminable heat around here) and the vinyl bubbles up (or down), and within moments, the ceiling is falling down around us.
The girls had a good time this afternoon riding home with Daddy, their arms poking up into the vinyl, trying to hold it up until we got home. Then after dinner tonight I pulled out the handy-dandy screwdrivers and figured out how the ceiling is held on, and took it off.
Now the Toyota has no interior padding on the ceiling, just the bare metal, and it is sure to get hot tomorrow.
Meanwhile I've got to figure out how to re-glue the vinyl back onto the wire-and-foam rectangular frame it fits over, and then put it up again.
Oh, and figure out how to pay for an engine overhaul...
Monitor Freeze
Something happened to the big monitor, the Sylvania F92. We got it free from Al and Nadine, knowing full well it had some problems. It sometimes doesn't turn fully ON. You know how monitors have this "sleep" mode where the screen turns black even though it has power? Well, this one sometimes turns ON but never really wakes UP, so the little light that normally shines green, stays amber. And the screen stays black. Blank. Whatever.
Over the course of experimentation, we found out that we could get it to turn on consistently - completely on, display and all - by turning the monitor on first, waiting for the "sizzle" when the high-voltage transformer is energized, then quickly turning on the computer. It doesn't work the other way around; that is, if you turn on the computer before you turn on the monitor, or turn them both on at the same time, the monitor light will remain amber and the display will remain blank.
Until this week.
Suddenly, for no reason I can fathom, the Magic Method didn't work. The monitor just wouldn't come on. And, naturally, it happened on a day when the kids had friends over to play computer games. I was angry, frustrated, and extremely short-tempered, being put on the spot about it. It's like all computers, they only fail when you really need them to work.
Has anyone ever had a PC that worked 100% of the time? That's never happened in this house, not when I keep buying them piece by piece. Because I can't conceptualize of handing over $500 (or more) for a complete system. I'm too much of a cheapskate. And an engineer.
Anyway, I took the monitor apart to see if there was anything I could do to get it going again. And found out that the silly thing has a microcontroller and a serial EEPROM and a lot of voltage-control chips. So I'm thinking that the problem is that the microcontroller is trying to boot up, and it won't activate the high-voltage circuitry until it finishes, and for some reason, it's not finishing.
In other words, a software problem.
Typical. Guess we'll be doubling-up on monitors for awhile. No telling how long it'll be out.
Over the course of experimentation, we found out that we could get it to turn on consistently - completely on, display and all - by turning the monitor on first, waiting for the "sizzle" when the high-voltage transformer is energized, then quickly turning on the computer. It doesn't work the other way around; that is, if you turn on the computer before you turn on the monitor, or turn them both on at the same time, the monitor light will remain amber and the display will remain blank.
Until this week.
Suddenly, for no reason I can fathom, the Magic Method didn't work. The monitor just wouldn't come on. And, naturally, it happened on a day when the kids had friends over to play computer games. I was angry, frustrated, and extremely short-tempered, being put on the spot about it. It's like all computers, they only fail when you really need them to work.
Has anyone ever had a PC that worked 100% of the time? That's never happened in this house, not when I keep buying them piece by piece. Because I can't conceptualize of handing over $500 (or more) for a complete system. I'm too much of a cheapskate. And an engineer.
Anyway, I took the monitor apart to see if there was anything I could do to get it going again. And found out that the silly thing has a microcontroller and a serial EEPROM and a lot of voltage-control chips. So I'm thinking that the problem is that the microcontroller is trying to boot up, and it won't activate the high-voltage circuitry until it finishes, and for some reason, it's not finishing.
In other words, a software problem.
Typical. Guess we'll be doubling-up on monitors for awhile. No telling how long it'll be out.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Is it Duh, or is it D'oh?
I shoulda figgered something weird was up when the symptoms didn't go away using the standard allergy meds. So it ain't allergies, after all. It's a pesky cold/flu thing. Starting feeling feverish yesterday, then had some nausea this morning. Still getting hot/cold flushes. Still sneezing. Had to switch to full-strength Nyquil to get any sleep last night. Which meant I woke up tired, groggy, cranky, semi-conscious. (Lots of people can't tell the difference, but it's very easy to tell, because normally I'm also hungry, but illness puts me off my feed.)
Hope it goes away before we head down to the reunion.
Hope it goes away before we head down to the reunion.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Allergies
This doesn't make any sense to me.
I was away at Boy Scout Camp for a week, deep in the woods, surrounded by plant life (and squirrels), and didn't have any problem with allergies.
I came home, and have been sneezing ever since. What gives?
Work was impossible today, with a headache that just wouldn't go away, and constant dripping and blowing my nose, and feeling that odd itch at the back of my throat. My usual medicine didn't do a thing. Neither did Cheryl's.
Yuck. Even down here in the computer room, it's getting to me.
I was away at Boy Scout Camp for a week, deep in the woods, surrounded by plant life (and squirrels), and didn't have any problem with allergies.
I came home, and have been sneezing ever since. What gives?
Work was impossible today, with a headache that just wouldn't go away, and constant dripping and blowing my nose, and feeling that odd itch at the back of my throat. My usual medicine didn't do a thing. Neither did Cheryl's.
Yuck. Even down here in the computer room, it's getting to me.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Monday, July 03, 2006
Coincidence? I think not...
As part of our visit with our dear friends, the Gaubs, who are down in Indiana visiting family, we took a bit of a tour of the campus of the University of Notre Dame yesterday, a decidely Catholic school. We are not Catholic, but we were still able to enjoy the fine architecture and the well-kept grounds. And, of course, the bookstore (but that's another story).
We walked through those well-kept grounds, taking in all the marvelous grass and trees and statuary of various saints and monks and bishops and priests (but, alas, not football players); and we entered the Cathedral, spending some amount of time walking carefully through the incense-laden auditorium and observing the pews and prayer benches and reliqueries and ... statuary; then we left the Cathedral and walked around the back side to the Grotto, a low-slung, rock-covered opening in the ground in which are many, many candles, and some ... statuary.
I took pictures of some of the statuary around the Grotto, and some of the Grotto itself.
And then I was stung by a bee.
Coincidence? I think not.
Those are Da Vinci bees!
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